2002 Articles

Towards a New Paradigm for Development: Strategies, Policies and Processes

Stiglitz, Joseph E.

In today's lecture, I want to go beyond these by now well-documented failures of the Washington consensus to begin providing the foundations of an alternative paradigm, especially one relevant to the least developing country. It is based on a broad conception of development, with a concomitantly broader vision of development strategies and a quite different perspective on the role of international assistance and the ways in which it should be delivered. The remainder of this lecture is organized around five parts. First, I shall describe this broader vision. Second, I shall explain why not only the Washington consensus, but earlier development paradigms, failed: they viewed development too narrowly. I shall outline briefly some of the key factors--including recent events in East Asia and Russia--that have helped us realize the inadequacies of the old approaches. Third, I shall outline what I refer to as the key principles of a development strategy based on this broader vision of development. Fourth, I shall outline the major components of these new development strategies. And fifth, I shall conclude with some general observations, focusing on the importance of trade and the work of UNCTAD in furthering development based on this new paradigm.